The Search for Wisdom

The Book of Wisdom was written by an Alexandrian Jew who was concerned about the effects that living in a pagan or polytheistic society would have upon the Jews in residence. His intention in writing was to provide a means for reminding the young Jewish men of his community of the importance of adhering to the covenant of their ancestors. He places his own words of wisdom in the mouth of the wisest king of Israel, Solomon. Solomon has become for these people the corporate symbol of wisdom.

At the same time, he used the Egyptian culture as a way to make his point. "Dame Wisdom" is often portrayed by this writer as someone very close to the Egyptian goddess, Isis. This practice is a rather skillful writing technique which helps the faithful Jew to see that what the Egyptians worship as a personal goddess is really just an attribute of the God of Israel. She is subservient to the Most High and, therefore, not to be worshipped. This tactic was also employed by the sacred writer in the Book of Genesis where in the opening chapter the God of Israel creates the objects which other cultures worship as God; namely, the sun and the moon, the stars of heaven, as well as all the plants and creatures of the earth.

Throughout the Book of Wisdom, the reader is exhorted to "seek" Wisdom, to pursue it. Again, by portraying Wisdom as a woman, the writer cleverly writes in such a way as to interest the young Jewish men of his community in the search as they would already be naturally seeking a beautiful woman to be their bride.

There is another side to the search. Dame Wisdom is set aside another woman in this book; namely, Dame Folly. Her allure is strong as well because she could distract the faithful Jewish men from the pursuit of God and incline them to the pursuit of wealth, status, and power. In this respect, the Book of Wisdom is very much a Scripture for our own time, for we too live in a culture that can seduce us with wealth, status and power.  In fact, history has shown that almost every era has seen men and women entrapped in the same way.

The sacred writer of this book equates the search for Wisdom with the search for God.  All of the various attributes of God that are evoked by the Covenant of Sinai find their way into that search.  Today we hear of justice, goodness, and integrity as the beginning of that search.  It is but the starting point, and over the next few days we will hear of other attributes or virtues that aid us in the search for Wisdom, the search for God.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator